• Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
Italian Notes
  • HOME
  • PEOPLE & PLACES
    • Abruzzo
    • Basilicata
    • Calabria
    • Campania
    • Emilia-Romagna
    • Friuli-Venezia Giulia
    • Lazio
    • Liguria
    • Lombardia-Lombardy
    • Marche
    • Molise
    • Piemonte-Piedmont
    • Puglia – Apulia
    • Sicilia
    • Toscana-Tuscany
    • Trentino-Alto Adige – Trentino-South Tyrol
    • Umbria
    • Veneto
  • FOOD
    • Antipasti
    • Primi piatti
    • Secondi piatti
    • Dolci
  • PR/ADVERTISING
  • Search
  • Menu Menu

Caprese salad

Insalata Caprese
Although it is so simple it borders the obvious there is no way around Italian cooking without including a caprese salad.

As the name indicates the caprese salad recipe comes from the island of Capri, but to many Italians it is a national emblem like the flag with the symbolic colours of green for hope, white for faith and red for charity. This may explain why it is served as a starter in all Italian restaurants throughout the world. In winter it  can be a sorry sight with greenhouse tomatoes and tasteless fior di latte, but when the tomatoes are ripe, the basil is fresh and strong, and you can buy real mozzarella di bufala in the deli, there is nothing better.

Ingredients

300 g tomatoes
100 g mozzarella
Olive oil
Fresh basil

Preparation

Wash the tomatoes and cut them in slices or wedges.
Drain the mozzarella cheese and slice it up in regular bites.
Drizzle with olive oil and cover with showers of fresh basil.
Serve the caprese salad immediately

Alternatives to caprese salad

Puntarelle in anchovy sauce

Multicoloured tomato salad

Green beans with anchovies

Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
Caprese salad recipe

Does it get much better than fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, good olive oil and basil

17 replies
  1. Maria
    Maria says:
    July 7, 2013 at 5:21 pm

    Mette, this is an awesome dish – so hot here and the salad would be so very refreshing.

    Reply
    • admin
      admin says:
      July 9, 2013 at 3:20 pm

      You’re right – cheese, tomatoes and basil go great with the heat.

      Reply
  2. Sophie
    Sophie says:
    July 14, 2013 at 8:37 pm

    Yum! And too funny. I’m eating a caprese salad as I’m reading this. Only with balsamico on it – and no basil. Can’t seem to manage to keep plants alive for longer than 5 minutes…

    Reply
    • admin
      admin says:
      July 16, 2013 at 3:23 pm

      Tasty coincidence – and the ease of basil growing is one of the major differences between Italy and the Scandinavian countries.

      Reply
  3. azita
    azita says:
    July 22, 2013 at 3:09 pm

    a simple and perfect dish! (ps hi! found you via twitter and loving your blog)

    Reply
    • admin
      admin says:
      July 23, 2013 at 5:35 pm

      That’s very kind. Thank you so much:)

      Reply
  4. Leigh
    Leigh says:
    July 26, 2013 at 2:48 am

    It is not summer if there is no caprese salad. This year I am traveling too much to grow basil at home so I have to cough up the money for the overpriced fresh stuff at the grocery store. Still – it’s a little bit of heaven.

    Reply
    • admin
      admin says:
      July 27, 2013 at 10:30 am

      True – and the dried version is good for absolutely nothing in my opinion.

      Reply
  5. Marcia
    Marcia says:
    July 27, 2013 at 5:15 pm

    The red, green and white are so vivid, the salad looks so fresh and delicious, I could eat it right off the plate!

    I’ll definitely have to try this one, Mette.

    Reply
  6. Stefanie
    Stefanie says:
    July 29, 2013 at 11:35 am

    Great salad choice :) I can honestly say, that Caprese salad is a staple food of mine, summer, winter – any season!

    Reply
    • admin
      admin says:
      July 29, 2013 at 5:58 pm

      I abstain in the winter when the mozzarella is watery and the basil and tomatoes are tasteless. That way it’s a miracle every time a new season starts.

      Reply
  7. Jeff Titelius
    Jeff Titelius says:
    July 31, 2013 at 5:53 pm

    One of my FAVORITE dishes especially when visiting Italy and only the freshest of ingredients are served! Such a delicious post!!

    Reply
    • admin
      admin says:
      August 5, 2013 at 5:05 pm

      Thanks – I’m glad I could whet your appetite.

      Reply
  8. Muza-chan
    Muza-chan says:
    August 5, 2013 at 2:46 pm

    Yummy! Thank you for the recipe :)

    Reply
    • admin
      admin says:
      August 6, 2013 at 6:15 pm

      You’re welcome.

      Reply
  9. Mike
    Mike says:
    August 6, 2013 at 3:40 pm

    Thank you for stopping by my blog yesterday! I had to pass over your last post with the snakes *shudder*…sorry! But, I moved on to your food posts and they look delicious! I think I will make this Caprese Salad. I’ve been on a salad kick lately along with the other foods I enjoy :)

    Reply
    • admin
      admin says:
      August 6, 2013 at 6:18 pm

      Sounds healthy.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Followon TwitterSubscribeto RSS Feed

Booking

Booking.com

Rental cars

More about food

Antipasti recipes - Italian NotesANTIPASTI RECIPES

Primi Piatti - Italian Notes

PRIMI PIATTI

Secondi piatti - Italian Notes

SECONDI PIATTI

Dolci - Italian Notes

DOLCI

Leftover meat recipesleftover meatTracing PythagorasTracing Pythagoras
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

Accept settingsHide notification onlySettings

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Google Analytics Cookies

These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.

If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Other cookies

The following cookies are also needed - You can choose if you want to allow them:

Accept settingsHide notification only